Rethinking marginalisation in the city: Intersecting inequalities, climate justice, and urban transformation

Cities are increasingly recognised as key arenas where multiple and intersecting forms of marginalisation are produced, experienced, and contested. Rapid urbanisation, socio-spatial inequalities, climate change, housing crises, and uneven access to infrastructure and public services have intensified processes of exclusion across contemporary urban systems. Marginalisation in the city is not only expressed through poverty or spatial segregation, but also through unequal exposure to environmental risks, precarious housing conditions, barriers to mobility and civic participation, and limited access to green and healthy urban environments. In many contexts, climate adaptation and urban sustainability agendas have paradoxically reinforced inequalities through processes such as green and climate gentrification, displacement, and exclusionary planning practices. At the same time, peripheral and marginalised communities continue to develop everyday forms of resistance, care, and innovation that challenge dominant urban governance models and offer alternative pathways for more just and inclusive urban futures.Urban marginalisation is also increasingly shaped by disputes over narratives, information, and political legitimacy. Climate misinformation, denialism, and uneven access to knowledge and participation processes can undermine public trust, weaken democratic governance, and deepen vulnerabilities among already marginalised populations. Addressing these challenges requires interdisciplinary and critical perspectives capable of connecting climate justice, urban planning, housing studies, political ecology, mobility, governance, and socio-environmental inequalities. This Research Topic seeks to advance understanding of how urban systems reproduce or challenge marginalisation and how alternative forms of planning, governance, and collective action can contribute to more equitable, democratic, and resilient cities.The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together cutting-edge empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions examining the multiple dimensions of marginalisation in urban contexts. The collection aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on how inequalities are embedded in urban infrastructures, climate policies, governance arrangements, mobility systems, housing dynamics, and environmental transformations. Particular attention is given to the experiences of peripheral, low-income, racialised, Indigenous, migrant, and otherwise marginalised communities, especially in the Global South, while also encouraging comparative and transnational perspectives. By integrating insights from urban studies, environmental humanities, geography, planning, political science, sociology, public health, architecture, and climate studies, this Research Topic seeks to generate knowledge capable of informing both scholarship and public policy toward more socially just and climate-resilient urban futures.This Research Topic welcomes original contributions addressing themes related to urban marginalisation, socio-environmental inequalities, and climate justice. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:• Green and climate gentrification• Housing insecurity, evictions, and displacement• Climate misinformation and urban governance• Nature-based solutions in peripheral and marginalised areas• Spatial inequalities in access to transport, infrastructure, and green spaces• Environmental racism and climate vulnerabilities• Informal settlements and everyday adaptation practices• Urban heat, flooding, and unequal exposure to climate risks• Barriers to civic participation and democratic exclusion• Community-led adaptation and grassroots urban initiatives• Urban resilience, care, and social infrastructures• Climate justice and just urban transitions• Governance, policy, and institutional responses to urban inequalitiesWe encourage submissions employing diverse methodological approaches, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, participatory, arts-based, and policy-oriented research. Comparative studies, community case studies, and interdisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome. The Research Topic welcomes Original Research articles, Reviews, Systematic Reviews, Policy and Practice Reviews, Perspectives, Brief Research Reports, and Community Case Studies that contribute to advancing critical understanding of marginalisation and justice in contemporary urban environments. Topic editors: Pedro Henrique Campello Torres, Maria Carolina Maziviero Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82074/rethinking-marginalisation-in-the-city-intersecting-inequalities-climate-justice-and-urban-transformation